1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector assembly. In particular, the connector assembly includes female and male terminals that have an improved cooperating fitting portion structure. The invention also relates to a method that facilitates connecting the male and female terminals together.
2. Background of Related Art
Connector assemblies for direct connection to a motor include male and female connectors. Each male connector includes a male terminal having a tab portion that projects from a housing directly mounted on the motor. Each female connector includes a female terminal that mates with and fits on the male connector. The female connector usually fits on the male connector from the side that the tab portion extends. However, mounting legs for mounting the housing on a body may project in front of the tab portion. Therefore, the mounting space is limited, so the connection of the female and male connectors is difficult and must be accomplished with wiggling or shaking the male and female connectors with respect to each other.
To overcome the above noted problem, it has been proposed, such as in Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 4-80258, to provide a female connector initially disposed on a lateral side of a male connector. The female connector is then fit to the male connector from the lateral side. However, if a tab portion of the male terminal projects at an angle, or the female terminal is not received in a housing, incomplete alignment may result and the male and female terminals cannot be properly fit together. In order to overcome such incomplete alignment, it is possible to provide the connection portion of the female terminal with a flaring guide portion to guide the tab portion of the male terminal. However, in order to deal with a wide range of incomplete alignments, the flaring guide portion must be considerably larger than the thickness of the tab portion. This construction is hard to obtain. Therefore, the alignment of the housing must be made more exacting, for example, by precise mounting of the male and female terminals on their respective housings. Further, the required precise fitting of the male and female connectors results in increased manufacturing costs, which is undesirable.
Moreover, this disadvantage is encountered not only with a connector for direct connection to a motor, but also for general type connectors, where male and female terminals in their respective housings are connected together.